Sports teaches you a lot of experiences which can be used in your journey of life. God’s own country, Kerala has produced some of the finest talents in Volleyball for India. So definitely couple of decades back it was one of the go to games other than football for the youngsters in Kerala. Since the opportunities in Sports were limited in those days & to move ahead in life one had to complete his/her education and find a career path. So this young volleyball player, Jithin, from North of Kerala turned his attention towards Hotel Management. Once he completed his hotel management course, he went on to work with two 5 Star hotels in India. This exposure helped him to learn the nuances of culinary skills and customer experience. People with sporting background usually have the ability to take risks to win matches and similarly Jithin took the risk of leaving the ‘5 Star Hotel’ job and joined a cruise liner. It is very difficult to work in a cruise liner as the customers are very demanding and you have to make them content with the available resources that you have on board. This of course gave him the confidence of handling customers from different countries with ease and also gave him the exposure of traveling to multiple countries. After catering to thousands of customers and docking at multiple cities , he decided to anchor his journey in one of the beautiful cities in the Republic of Ireland. When i asked Jithin ‘Why Ireland?’ , he replied with a wry smile saying that ‘it happened somehow, nothing was planned’. Lot of things happen in life unplanned but if you are ready to take risks and half chances then most of the time you end up celebrating your decision. Pink Salt, the restaurant started by Jithin and his partners in the lovely destination Bray in the County of Wicklow (near to Dublin, 40 minutes travel by train) has garnered a name for itself since it opened 2 years back in 2017. This restaurant has been rated in 2018 and 2019 as the ‘Great Places to Eat’ by Lucinda O’Sullivan (Ireland’s highly rated food & hospitality critic). It also features in the 101 great Irish restaurants 2019 list. 

Pink Salt has an elaborate menu serving Veg and Non Veg Indian cuisines. Their ‘Shakahari Thali’ is a visual treat to the customers and captures the essence of Indian cooking. I was happy to see that the restaurant was mostly visited by the local Irish citizens. It was great to listen to them discussing about the Indian cuisine : ‘You should try the Samosas, they are yummy or may be you should try Chicken trilogy’. Jithin still maintains his physique and is ready to play Volley ball, jump up high and spike the ball down the opponent’s defense. Lucky for the people of Bray and Ireland that Pro Volleyball League was not started in India during his college days else this wonderful restaurant would have remained just a dream. Pink Salt is soon expanding to Sandyford and that summarizes the success story of this sporting enthusiast. My daughter Reya recalls him as ‘Pappadom Uncle’ 🙂     

Update (25th June, 2019):- Pink Salt has opened their new outlet in Sandyford. For now, it is positioned as a take away restaurant with very minimum space for in dine guests. Address :- 18 Ballymoss Rd, Sandyford Business Park. 015587136. They open 6 days a week except Tuesdays.